Member Story:
“Allowing Young Child to Walk Again”

My daughter was born with a condition that hindered her posture and limited her ability to walk. We had taken her to multiple doctors, but could not get a clear diagnosis from anyone. We turned to PinnacleCare. As soon as we became members, the PinnacleCare team began researching the best next steps for her care. As part of the briefing sent to top physicians, they included a DVD of my daughter struggling to get around on her crutches.

Receiving a proper diagnosis and appropriate plan of treatment for my daughter was undoubtedly the best day of our lives.

In her five years of treatment, we had never been advised to see a physiatrist, a physician that specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation. PinnacleCare recommended a physiatrist who had trained in Europe and was practicing at a leading hospital. During our daughter’s first appointment, we were told that the exercises and stretching she had been doing would ultimately limit her mobility, not increase it!

The doctor diagnosed my daughter with hypotonia and arthrogryopsis, a condition that would have been much more successfully treated at birth. She now sees an occupational therapist and a physical therapist for three hours of proper stretching and exercises every day versus the three hours a week she was previously receiving. She has also begun myofascial release, a form of therapy that stretches the connective tissue to eliminate pain and increase range of motion.

Receiving a proper diagnosis and appropriate plan of treatment for my daughter was undoubtedly the best day of our lives. And after six months of treatment, my daughter received new braces and is walking upright for the first time without crutches. She is beautiful proof of the importance of an accurate diagnosis!

The firm is now allowing its entire adviser force to refer clients to PinnacleCare, which also created a new elder-care assessment… Many advisers feel that dealing with elder-care issues isn’t their responsibility. But as clients age, “you’re going to be doing this whether you want to or not.”

In a time of serious illness, these advocates can help research new treatments that doctors may not know a lot about, cut through the medical bureaucracy, and perhaps help frame medical decisions more objectively than stressed out patients and their family members. Advocates are not just there to help you heal but also to keep you healthy.

— Anne Tergesen, “Your Guide to the Medical Maze”

Consider hiring a private patient advocate… It could help get you the care you need.

— Judy Foreman, “For when a doctor and a nurse just aren’t enough”

“Pinnacle provided me with a name and with research that said, ‘here’s how other people are going it, and here’s who has the most long-term survivors, and here are their stories.’ What I got from that was hope. Not a bad return on investment.”

— Gregory Taggart, “Deluxe Health Care”

“I always thought the medical staff would return phone calls, answer questions and discuss treatment plans and options. I was wrong.” So the family turned to…PinnacleCare for help. Within one day, a doctor on the company’s staff reviewed her mother’s medical records and set up a conference call with a neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins and a neurologist from Rush University Medical Center, who agreed to take on the case. “We needed someone on our side.”